MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday.
"On Monday, June 20, trilateral talks on the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh settlement are planned between the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is planned that Putin will at first hold separate meetings with Sargsyan and Aliyev, and later the three presidents will hold talks together," Ushakov said.
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He emphasized that Russia "will take active steps to assist the sides in the settlement of the conflict." Ushakov reminded that Moscow already played an important role in introducing a ceasefire in the conflict zone at the start of April 2016.
Putin has already held several telephone conversations with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, visits of defense ministers and foreign ministers took place, and Chiefs of General Staffs of Armenia and Azerbaijan were invited to Moscow, the presidential aide reminded. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also visited Yerevan and Baku at the start of April, he added.
"We will now continue our mediatory mission, of course, in full cooperation with other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, on the basis of principles proposed in accordance with the statements of the presidents of Russia, United States and France from 2009 to 2013. We will see which results this three-party contact will lead to. Our side will hold the most interested and active dialogue," Ushakov concluded.
On April 2, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly deteriorated when the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defense authorities of Armenia and of Azerbaijan.
On April 5 Azerbaijan’s Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Nadjmeddin Sadykov and his Armenian counterpart Col. Gen. Yury Khachaturov in Moscow with Russia’s mediation. At the talks the sides reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities at the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. On the same day, the defense ministries of the two countries announced that the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would start at 12am local time.
Though the ceasefire mostly holds, both sides continue to report occasional violations of ceasefire on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On May 16 the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Vienna. Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev agreed to "make steps to monitor observance of agreements on ceasefire and introduce a mechanism on investigating incidents." They also agreed to "possible resume the negotiations process on settling the conflict," the press service of the Armenian president said.